Hampton buying homes along Saunders Road

Average cost 18 percent more than assessed value

A vehicle drives by a boarded up house at 181 Saunders Road in Hampton, one… (Kaitlin McKeown / Daily…)

March 23, 2014|By Robert Brauchle, rbrauchle@dailypress.com | By Robert Brauchle, rbrauchle@dailypress.com

HAMPTON — The city has spent $1.4 million in the past year buying properties needed to widen Saunders Road, even though Hampton officials do not know whether Newport News will commit to extending the project to the interstate.

A review of property records shows the city is paying prices for those properties that sometimes exceed the assessed value by more than 30 percent.

The city paid $235,000 for a single-story brick veneer home at 173 Saunders Rd. — 32 percent more than the $177,700 assessed value.

Localities assign assessed values to properties as a way of fairly taxing each parcel. Each value is based on sales from the previous year of comparable properties. Citywide, the assessed value of residential properties dropped 1.8 percent in the past year, according to statistics the city released in January.

The assessed value of most properties along Saunders Road remained unchanged in the past year, although some decreased by as much as 2 percent.

So far, the city has bought properties from willing sellers and has not used eminent domain, Hampton Public Works Deputy Director Lynn Allsbrook said.

The city will not begin work on the roadway until all of the land needed for the project is bought, Allsbrook said. That could happen as early as September when the city expects to begin soliciting bids from contracts.

The city needs to buy 12 properties along Saunders Road; to date, it has closed on eight on them. Those properties not yet purchased have a combined assessed value of $784,100.

If they can be purchased on schedule, Allsbrook said, work could begin in 2015.

The city plans to spend about $20.5 million from state and federal sources to widen the east-west thoroughfare from Big Bethel Road to the Newport News border.

The city has already extended Commander Shepard Boulevard from NASA Langley Research Center to Big Bethel Boulevard.